Happy New Year!

Daily interactions with your pet can be one of the best parts of life. Your dog sleeps with you. Your cat licks you. You go on walks in the woods together.

The human-animal bond is a strong one. For many owners, their pet is considered a family member. So we feel it’s important to give you the facts about a group of illnesses that are passed from animals to people (called zoonotic diseases or zoonoses) that may cause health concerns for you and your pet. You may have heard of some of them: Lyme disease, Cat scratch disease, ringworm, Giardiasis (stomach illness), tapeworm and heartworm infections.

These illnesses are passed from pets to people in a variety of ways:

1. Contact with the infected pet themselves

2. Contact with urine, feces or respiratory droplets of an infected pet

3. Contact with items in the pet’s environment

4. Scratches or bites by a pet

5. Scratches or bites by an insect (such as the Lyme-disease tick) that carries the infection from pets to people

6. Contact with infected wildlife that pass the disease to pets to people

Even the most observant pet owners may not realize their pet has a zoonotic disease. They can be tough to spot! Your pet may look absolutely fine but be carrying an infection that can spread to you and the rest of your family.

That’s why it is important that your pet visits us for their annual checkup. During the checkup, we’ll perform your pet’s physical exam and do the right lab tests if needed.